Miscellaneous Hacks - SocialForums 1.4

SocialForums for vBulletin 3.7
Created by Marius Czyz aka Phalynx.

This mod will work *ONLY* with vBulletin 3.7 or higher. It will not run on vBulletin 3.6.x due to non existent feature of "social groups".

Support will be only given for people who clicked Mark as INSTALLED.

Description
Not satisfied with vBulletin social groups messaging function? With SocialForums your social group leaders can create a standard forum for their group.
A group leader can only create a forum if the group has at least 5 members - this can be changed via settings. Optionally the group leader can be a moderator of such a social forum.

Permissions
Since 1.3 there are advanced permissions active (Forum and Archive). This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.

Demo
None, see screenshots

Installation
This product is fully phrased and uses template hooks. No file changes or manual template edits needed.
1. Upload bitfield_socialforums.xml to existing folder /includes/xml/
2. Upload functions_socialforums.php to existing folder /includes/
3. Fresh Installation: Just import the product. Upgrade: Import the product, allow overwrite. No forums get lost!
4. Check settings, especially for parent forum. Don't forget to set permissions via usergroups!

Troubleshooting
Q: I don't see a link to create a forum. Why?
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, espacially if the user is allowed to create forum.
A: Check if the usergroup meet min users requirement, see AdminCP/Settings/SocialForums.

Q: My users see the forums, but they shouldn't!
A: Check permissions for the usergroup, if the users usergroup is set to "can see".
A: Did you disabled the restriction mode? Enable it.

Todo
- By deleting a group the forum should also be deleted/archived. Currently this has to be done manually.

Known Issues
- On big boards with hundreds of social groups this mod can really impact the performance because of the mass of new created forums. If you still want to use this mod use the "Minimum Members" feature with a higher value. Using the permission check there are additional two queries on every page.

History
1.4.6, 6th October 2008
- Permissions are now also active in Archive

1.4.2, 27th May 2008
- Added: If a group has a linked forum the grouplisting has the last post date and count of postings (with permission check).
- Added: Recent threads in linked forum on group home
- Added: Private groups: Link to forum only shown to members of group
- Changed: Enabled permissions for unregistered usergroup. Unregistered Users are not more explicit denied without a check of it's usergroup

1.3.1, 23th May 2008
- Fixed: Not existing array

1.3.0, 23th May 2008
- Added: Permissions are now active. This includes read/write public and private (moderated/invite only) socialforums and creation of forum. Please check permissions for every usergroup! As this needs two additional queries on every page you can disable this.
- Added: Checks for permission before the creation link will be displayed
- Changed: Default View Age set to "Show all Threads"

1.2.1 8th April 2008:
- Added: Group messaging can be disabled via options (previously: always disabled)

1.2.0 4th April 2008:
- Added: Groupleader can now be moderator of group forum
- Added: Minimum Members that are required for own forum
- Added: Group messaging will be automatically hide for group that has own forum
- Added: Forums are created with more allowances
- Added: By deleting a forum the linked socialgroup get's updated
- Added: Forum's description contains link back to social group
- Added: By changing group's name it synchronize it with the forum's name

1.0/1.1 1st April 2008:
- Initial releases

[jilly]

If this hasn't been suggested already, I'd like a field in admincp to set on the back end that shows you how many posts a group needs, as one of the prerequisistes to make a social forum. Then, something that shows up on the groups home page, that says

Social Groups may create a Social Forum to add functionality to their Group. You must have at least (x) members, and at least (X) posts in your Social Group in order to create a Social Forum for your Group.

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by shri

Could someone elaborate on the caching issues? We've noticed that with multiple front ends, there is a problem that sometimes the forums seem to disappear for some users.

Originally Posted by Defkalion

You're correct. Also, it's not only when members navigate with getnew searches. If you have the groups for ontopic discussions (and not for general community use with offtopic groups), then you need to keep all the content (discussions) in one place. With this mod, we have the groups' forums inside our forums list. With 3.8, discussions are only found inside each group.

Originally Posted by punchbowl

Yep this mod is much better than what's built into 3.8. Hopefully we'll be able to turn off social group thread completely and use this mod instead.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

With vb 3.8 coming up with similar functionality, do you have any idea's about importing Social group threads from this mod into vb 3.8's 'social group discussion' threads?

As I currently don't know how they will exactly handle the threads, I cannot promise anything. But I think they will do it like with the blog.

Originally Posted by jilly

If this hasn't been suggested already, I'd like a field in admincp to set on the back end that shows you how many posts a group needs, as one of the prerequisistes to make a social forum. Then, something that shows up on the groups home page, that says

Social Groups may create a Social Forum to add functionality to their Group. You must have at least (x) members, and at least (X) posts in your Social Group in order to create a Social Forum for your Group.

Nice idea, but let's see how 3.8 will interfere with this mod. If there are after 3.8 enough users that want to see this continued, I will probably do a v2.0

[Hamednet]

thanks dear

very nice !

[Phalynx]

Update to 1.4.5 has been released. Permissions are now also active in Archive.

How to update?
1. Upload functions_socialforums.php to existing folder /includes/
2. Import the product, allow overwrite. No forums get lost!
3. Check settings, especially for parent forum. Don't forget to set permissions via usergroups!

[fly]

My hats off to Phalynx. Making some of the best hacks available for vB.

[djilou]

Permission Can read messages in public socialforum didn't work for me.

[flOid]

Originally Posted by djilou

Permission Can read messages in public socialforum didn't work for me.

same here

[OveB]

Originally Posted by djilou

Permission Can read messages in public socialforum didn't work for me.

Same here, actually "Can read messages in private socialforums" don't work either. Therefore, mods and admins no longer have access.

[punchbowl]

Group starters can't be ignored

vBulletin Message
Sorry xxxxxxxx is a moderator/admin and you are not allowed to ignore him or her.

Any possibility of changing that?

[Phalynx]

Originally Posted by djilou

Permission Can read messages in public socialforum didn't work for me.

Will take a look.

Originally Posted by punchbowl

Group starters can't be ignored
Any possibility of changing that?

Remove them as moderator and disable setting which makes group leaders moderators of their forum.